A variety of fuses have been designed for use with vehicles. The two most popular commercial fuses are the cartridge fuse, which is being displaced because of size considerations, and the plug fuse.
A variety of fuse block extenders are known and can be bought in auto parts stores in the United States of America. Thus the BWD Automotive Corporation of Franklin Park, Ill. has marketed a twelve piece xe2x80x9cDxe2x80x9d package of terminal adapters under the xe2x80x9cONE STOPxe2x80x9d brand. The package is made up of four types of adapters. The first is a metal strip having a central female contact, a male contact on one end and an insulated crimp for a wire lead on the other. A second has a central female contact with male xe2x80x9cspadexe2x80x9d or xe2x80x9cbladexe2x80x9d terminals on each end. A third has a female contact on one end and two side by side male blade contacts on the other. The fourth has a xe2x80x9cZxe2x80x9d configuration with a female contact on one end and, on the other end, two parallel male blade contacts offset at right angles on a base which is perpendicular to the female contact.
The adapters have many uses. One of the primary uses is to assist in the connection of automotive accessories to vehicle fuse blocks by connecting leads. The connectors often have a terminal or a contact on one end, a wire lead to a fuse holder, and a wire extending from the fuse holder for connection to the accessory. A male element of the terminal adapter is forced into a vehicle fuse box female contact in parallel with the blade of a plug fuse and can slip or be pulled out and forgotten when the fuse is removed for inspection, etc.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,372,638 issued to L. J. Sohler teaches a form of a terminal adapter to be used with fuse boxes. The connector is bent upon itself at the mid-point to form a blade for insertion into a female contact. At the end of the blade,, the two sides bifurcate at roughly a forty five degree angle. At the point where the width between the two sides becomes greater than that of a plug fuse, the two sides are rebent forty-five degrees to form a parallel male contact which has an outward crimp at it""s lower end. The xe2x80x9cYxe2x80x9d portion of the connector is inserted into a vehicle fuse block over the top and sides of a blade fuse and fit outside the female contact within the fuse box receptacle. Half of the metal in the rebent portion of the connector is cut away vertically so that the non cut away will rest on top of the fuse box and prevent excessive penetration by the end of the bifurcated section into the receptacle in which the female contact is positioned.
Dennis Brooks has invented xe2x80x9cTxe2x80x9d, xe2x80x9cYxe2x80x9d, and xe2x80x9cLxe2x80x9d shaped fuse block extenders. The xe2x80x9cLxe2x80x9d shaped extender is marketed nationally and internationally. Each of these extenders has one pair of male electrodes 21 which are plugged into female fuse receptacles of a vehicular fuse block. The extenders have two or more pairs of female receptacles into which fuses can be inserted. One, effectively, replaces the fuse block female receptacle into which the receptacle is plugged and the other acts as a receptacle for a second fuse in a vehicular accessory circuit when an accessory electrode is plugged into it.
Automobile design considerations have resulted in the need for smaller fuse blocks. At the same time, the public demand for accessories has increased spectacularly. Since installed fuse blocks cannot be enlarged or the space for the fuse blocks expanded, there is a need for inexpensive more compact extenders. The fuse block extender designs of this invention provide for the use of such accessories.
Inherent in extender design considerations are ease of manufacture, the cost of tooling up for manufacturing the devices and the durability of the extenders under conditions of usage. For example, as the commercially available fuses become ever smaller, the extender elements must become correspondingly smaller. The female electrodes of accessories are correspondingly small. The heat resulting from extended use and the designed clamping pressures detrimentally accelerate the aging of the metals and leads to reduced contact pressures between the electrodes or problems with alignment during the mating of the electrodes.
Similarly, bends in the metals of the female electrodes may, under conditions of usage, become more brittle and require support because of the aging process. The extenders of this invention are designed to ameliorate these problems. Thus, shell designs for the larger fuses are more simple than designs for smaller fuses where mating problems can result in electrodes being bent during the mating process.
The fuse block extenders of this invention have a shell, a male bus electrode and a shorter circuit electrode which fit into the female electrodes of a vehicular type fuse block, one or more accessory electrodes connect to the bus electrode through fuse segments and at least one connector. The accessory electrode(s), in turn, connects to one or more accessory(ies).